JPS6354112B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an ore collector for mining manganese nodules present in seawater.

Manganese nodules, which are attracting attention as inexhaustible mineral resources such as nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese, are deposited flatly on the surface of seafloor sediments (mud) on the ocean's deep sea floor thousands of meters deep, as if spread with gravel. Therefore, when mining, it is not possible to grab a large number of nodules at once using a grab bucket, etc., but instead of collecting nodules from a wide area using a mining device, it is necessary to collect the nodules from a wide area using a mining device. It is necessary to lift ore to the mother ship.

Various methods have been considered for collecting and lifting equipment for manganese nodules, but one method uses negative pressure to suck up manganese nodules along with a water flow through a suction head with a wide suction port and collect the ore through an ore collection duct. However, the so-called fluid dredge method, in which the ore is fed into an ore lifting pipe in which a rising water flow is generated by an ore pump and then lifted to a mother ship at sea, has high mining efficiency and various proposals have been made as a possible method.

When collecting manganese nodules using this method, not only the manganese nodules but also a large amount of seawater and fine-grained seabed sediments (so-called mud and clay) are sucked up from the suction head. If the ore is unloaded to the mother ship at sea together with manganese nodules, not only will the efficiency of ore lift be reduced, but the sediments separated from the manganese nodules will be released into the seawater, causing environmental pollution. Therefore, the fine-grained seabed sediments that are sucked into the ore collection duct from the suction head along with seawater and nodules are separated from the nodules by using centrifugal force, gravity, mesh, or a combination of these. The wastewater is then disposed of into the sea along with seawater to prevent fine-grained sediment from being brought up to sea.

As described above, when the suction head separates the seabed sediment from the collected nodules and supplies the nodules to the ore lifting pipe, for example, a hopper is installed to separate the seabed sediment and the nodule, and gravity is used. Only the nodules are allowed to fall to the bottom of the hopper, and the fine-grained sediment is suspended in seawater and discharged from the drainage outlet through a mesh if necessary to the open sea. The ore is lifted.

In this case, as a means for generating a water flow to convey the nodules from the suction head to the hopper and a water flow to discharge the seawater with suspended fine sediments from the hopper to the open sea, a conventional method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 54-28121, for example. As shown in the figure, an ore collection pump was installed in the ore collection duct from the suction head to the hopper, but in that case, the ore collection pump was several tens of millimeters thick.
Because manganese nodules with a diameter of To avoid this, it has been considered to install an eductor with no mechanically moving parts in the middle of the ore collection duct, but eductors are not energy efficient.

The same problem can be said about the ore pump installed in the ore lifting pipe that lifts manganese nodules from the seabed ore collector to the offshore mother ship, but the installation depth of the ore pump is For example, when the water depth for manganese nodules mining is about 6000 m, it is generally about 1000 m from the sea surface, and if parts such as the pump impeller wear out and need to be replaced, it will take about 1000 m to accommodate the pump on the mother ship at sea. It will be enough if the ore lifting pipe is salvaged.

However, in order to accommodate the ore collecting pump on the mother ship,
It is necessary to hoist all 6,000 meters of ore lifting pipe onto the mother ship, which requires a great deal of time and energy, and the costs and losses due to the suspension of operations will be enormous. Furthermore, if the dimensions of the impeller and casing are increased to allow for wear, the weight will increase and the energy required for traction will increase, which is not preferable.

This invention solves the above-mentioned problems of conventional manganese nodule collectors, has high energy efficiency,
Another object of the present invention is to provide a manganese nodule collector having means for generating a water flow in an ore collection duct without causing significant wear on the ore collection pump due to the passage of manganese nodules.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides the manganese nodules collector having the above structure, characterized in that the hopper is formed as a substantially closed container, and the ore collector pump is provided in the drain pipe from the hopper.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail based on drawings showing embodiments thereof.

In the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, hoppers 2 are mounted on a pair of left and right sleds 1. At the front of the sled 1, a suction head 3 is provided that extends perpendicularly to the direction of travel and opens close to the seabed when this device is placed on the seabed.The suction head 3 and the hopper 2
An ore collecting duct 4 connecting the upper part of the front side wall of the ore collecting duct 4 is installed. A drain pipe 5 is provided rearward from the upper part of the rear wall of the hopper 2, and its rear end opens into the open sea. A pump 6 for collecting ore is provided in the drain pipe 5. The upper surface of hopper 2 is the ceiling 2a
It is formed as a substantially airtight container that can maintain the negative pressure necessary for suction in the suction head 3 when the ore collection pump 6 is operated. A mineral connecting pipe 7 is connected.

A seawater intake pipe 8 for adjusting the nodule slurry concentration is connected to the lower end of the hopper of the ore lifting connecting pipe 7 near the connection end to the nodule discharge port 2b, and the other end is open to the open sea. A nodule slurry concentration adjustment valve 9 whose opening degree can be adjusted is provided in the middle of the seawater intake pipe 8. A nodule slurry concentration detector 10 is provided in the middle of the ore lifting connecting pipe 7, and a detection signal from the detector 10 is used to adjust the opening degree of the regulating valve 9 via a conductive wire. .

Inside the hopper 2, an annular nodule cleaning pipe 1 is installed below the connection position of the ore collecting duct 4 and the drain pipe 5.
1 is installed horizontally, and its pipe wall is provided with numerous jet ports that spout seawater into and out of the ring, and one end of the pipe opens into the open sea outside the hopper 2. 12 are connected.

A long ore lifting pipe 14 is connected to the front end of the ore lifting connecting pipe 7 for lifting the manganese nodules to a mother ship 13 on the sea by water flow and for towing this ore collecting device by the mother ship 13 on the sea. . The ore lifting pipe 14
An ore lifting pump 15 is arranged in the middle of the ore lifting pipe 14, thereby generating an upward flow in the ore lifting pipe 14.

Next, the operation of this ore collector will be explained.

The ore collecting device is supported by a sled 1 on the surface of seabed sediment where manganese nodules are present, and is towed by an ore lifting pipe 14 by a mother ship 13 on the sea, and moves forward at a predetermined speed.

The pressure inside the hopper 2 is lower than the pressure of seawater outside the hopper 2 by, for example, 7 m of water column, due to the collecting pump 6 installed in the drain pipe 5, and as a result, the ore is collected from the opening of the suction head 3 toward the hopper 2. Seawater flows at high speed inside the ore collecting duct 4, and the manganese nodules and fine-grained seabed sediments present on the seabed directly below the opening of the suction head 3 and around it are hopped inside the ore collection duct 4 by the water flow. 2. The flow velocity of seawater entering the hopper 2 from the ore collection duct 4 suddenly drops, so manganese nodules with large particle sizes due to the relationship between specific gravity and particle size fall through the seawater in the hopper, forming fine-grained seabed sediments and poles. The manganese nodules, which are too small to be lifted, remain suspended in the seawater and are carried out of the hopper by the action of the ore collection pump 6 and are carried by the water flow inside the drainage pipe 5 toward the open sea. It is discharged.

The manganese nodules that have fallen through the hopper 2 are stored at the bottom of the hopper 2, and are transferred from the nodule discharge port 2b into the ore lifting connection pipe 7, where an upward flow is generated by the ore lifting pump 15 installed in the middle of the ore lifting pipe 14. They are sucked in one after another. The manganese nodule slurry concentration rising inside the ore lifting pipe 14 and the ore lifting ore connection pipe 7 can be determined by checking the opening degree of the nodule slurry concentration adjustment valve 9 provided in the seawater intake pipe 8 for nodule slurry concentration adjustment using the nodule slurry concentration detector 10.
By automatically adjusting based on the detection signal of
The manganese nodules are maintained at an optimum concentration and are lifted together with seawater through the ore lifting pipe 14 to a mother ship on the sea.

The seawater pressure outside the hopper is applied to the annular nodules washing pipe 11 provided in the hopper 2 through the nodules washing water intake pipe 12, and the seawater pressure from the outside of the hopper is applied to the inside of the hopper 2 through a large number of jet ports provided on the pipe wall of the washing pipe. Seawater sprays out vigorously. This cleans the inside and outside of the cleaning pipe from the fine seafloor sediment (sludge) attached to the manganese nodules that fall toward the bottom of the hopper, and the fine mud particles are suspended in seawater and discharged from the drain pipe. .

As described above, by configuring the hopper as an airtight container and installing the ore collection pump in the drain pipe, manganese nodules will not pass through the ore collection pump, so wear on the pump can be significantly reduced. , the life of the device is increased.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the ore collector having the suction head of the style shown in the above embodiment, the means for separating manganese nodules and seabed sediment, the means for adjusting the slurry concentration in the ore lifting pipe, and the means for cleaning. It can be applied as long as the manganese nodules on the seabed are collected by water current, the manganese nodules are separated from seawater, and the separated seawater is discharged to the open sea through a drainage pipe.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2
The figure is a plan view thereof. 2...Hopper, 3...Suction head, 4
... Ore collection duct, 5 ... Drain pipe, 6 ... Ore collection pump, 7 ... Ore lifting connection pipe, 14 ... Ore lift pipe.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ore collection pump, a suction port that suctions manganese nodules present on the seabed together with surrounding seawater and fine-grained seabed sediment by the negative pressure generated by the ore collection pump, and a suction port that is connected to the suction port and thereby The hopper is connected to the ore collecting duct, and the aspirated material is transported into the hopper from the ore collecting duct into manganese nodules and fine particles in the hopper. In a manganese nodule collector that separates seafloor sediments from suspended seawater, the former is stored at the bottom of the hopper and the latter is drained into the open sea through a drainage pipe connected to the hopper. A device for collecting manganese nodules, characterized in that the device is formed as a sealed container, and the collecting pump is installed in the drain pipe.